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14 May, 2008

Happy Hour Discurso

The Senate has been relatively quiet this week, but the chamber devolved into a complete meltdown after Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tossed a procedural grenade into an otherwise tame floor debate.

McConnell (R-Ky.) surprised Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) by dumping the Republican version of a G.I. bill into an unrelated floor debate about union rights for firefighters and police offers.

The Senate floor immediately shut down, as Democrats said Republicans were acting in "bad faith" by trying to force a vote on the Republican GI bill _ backed by John McCain _ which is not as generous in its educational benefits for veterans as the Democratic bill.

McConnell says he simply wants a vote on the GOP version so that Republicans can have a vote on expanding veterans benefits. But Democrats, led by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), have been in delicate negotiations trying to pass a major G.I. bill, according to today's Politico story by David Rogers. It's not clear at this point if McConnell's move will spoil the effort by Webb to attach his GI bill to the Iraq funding legislation next week.

Webb said that as late as last night, he was negotiating with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on a breakthrough on the G.I. bill, so today's maneuver amounted to a sneak attack on the Senate floor.

Sneak attacks: because you know your ideas are too odious to survive a full frontal assault. Good job, boys. Way to prove you're a bunch of morally bankrupt fucking idiots. Alas for them, the Dems are on to their silly schemes and are having none of the hijinks:

The Senate on Wednesday rejected an amendment supported by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to help veterans returning from Iraq get access to higher education.

By a 55-42 vote, the Senate blocked the amendment, authored by McCain ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), from being added to an unrelated bill giving public safety workers the right to unionize.

McCain and Graham are opposed to a broader Democratic GI bill of rights, authored by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), which Democrats plan to insert into a massive emergency war spending bill that will hit the Senate floor next week. Democrats accused Republicans of hijacking the Senate floor and forcing a vote on the Graham amendment to shield McCain from attacks for opposing the broader Democratic plan.

And the snivelling about the meanie Dems keeping the poor widdle Cons from voting commences in 3...2...1...

On right-winger Bill Bennett’s radio show this morning, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) expressed his openess to bombing Iran, saying that there is “an appeal to it.” Discussing the West Virginia primary results, Bennett praised what he claimed was Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) transformation into his “style” of politician, which he said is someone who “throws down a shot of liquor and bombs Iran.”

Lieberman's response to Bennett's remark? He giggled. Giggled. Carpetbagger has the only sane response to an insane fuckwit: "We’re going to take away this guy’s committee chairmanship soon, right?"

Let's hope. We've got enough giggling goons in the Senate without letting the more florid of them hang on to Democratic chairs.

And, finally, never let it be said our Fearless Leader hasn't made sacrifices in his War on Terrah:

For the first time, Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families.“I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.” Bush said he made that decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization’s high commissioner for human rights.

First, if Bush were really that concerned about appearances, and doesn’t want “some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” I wonder why the president isn’t the least bit concerned about taking more vacation time than any of his predecessors. Indeed, no Commander in Chief, in war time or peace, has ever spent so much time way from the job.

If “some mom” might resent seeing the president play golf, might not that same mom resent seeing the president clear brush?

It speaks to a bizarre sense of what constitutes sacrifice in Bush’s mind. As Brandon Friedman put it, “In today’s world, sacrifice is defined in terms of not being able to afford a Hummer; of having to see a few images of war on TV; and of giving up golf.”

Oh, and his reasons may be suspect, too:

Second, as my friends at Blue Girl, Red State noted, Bush may have given up golf in 2003, but a knee injury was just as likely a culprit as a sense of “solidarity.”

Bush, 57, will have an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) test on Thursday, Dec. 18[, 2003]. Last summer, Bush suffered a minor muscle tear in his right calf and that injury, along with aching knees, forced him to abandon his running routine. The calf strain healed by August when he had his annual physical, but the president said in September that he suspected he had a meniscus tear.

And for good measure, it’s also worth keeping in mind that Bush’s memory is a little shaky. He now believes he gave up golf after de Mello’s death in August 2003, but he was actually still golfing three months later.